Share story

A lot has happened since “Last Week Tonight” last aired in November. Too much to be summed up during the first episode of the show’s fourth season. Oliver focused the majority of the show on President Donald Trump’s difficulty with truth, accuracy and shaking hands.

Every episode of “Last Week Tonight” ends with an examination of a wonky topic. Oliver used this week’s in-depth segment to call the president out for lying, saying that, “We have a president who is capable of standing in the rain and saying it was a sunny day.” Oliver backs that up with a clip of Trump saying God stopped the rain when he rose to speak at his inauguration.

From there, Oliver details how Trump’s worldview is shaped by cable news and outlets that make things up and are fast and loose with facts, like Infowars and Brietbart News. There are some disturbing clips of Alex Jones from Infowars turning turnip red while screaming and claiming that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn., never happened.

Oliver’s entertaining rants play well with Americans who didn’t vote for Trump. But how could he find a way to reach the president? Create commercials to air during his favorite shows, of course.

The kicker of this week’s show was a commercial Oliver made that was to air Monday morning in the Washington, D.C., area on various Trump-favored cable news shows. The commercial stars a cowboy pitching catheters. The cowboy quickly segues from catheters to explaining the nuclear triad and a host of other issues. It is a nice bit of comedy with a serious goal.